EIGHT North Wales Labour MPs will step up their demands for a major upgrade along the region's coastal railway this morning in a House of Commons debate.

The politicians will be led in an adjournment debate by Vale of Clwyd MP Chris Ruane.

"It will give us the perfect opportunity to spell out the need for drastic improvements, both in rolling stock and in the state of the stations on the line," said Mr Ruane.

"We want our fair share of the investment cake in rail and the debate will help focus our demands, particularly on what needs to be done between Crewe and Holyhead."

Mr Ruane has already raised the importance of the line in a question to Prime Minister Tony Blair and with Government transport ministers.

"As a group, and a united voice, we will continue to press our call for a fair deal. After all we are talking about an important link with Europe here - a link which needs a vast amount of investment."

His views were echoed by Ynys Mon MP Albert Owen, the group's spokesman on rail.

Mr Owen said: "We will be concentrating on North Wales and the need for drastic improvements. After all it is part of a link between two capitals, Dublin and London, and we don't want to become the poor relations of the country's rail network. It is crying out for investments and we are fed up with broken promises from various aspects of the service." The group's move comes less than 48 hours after Virgin West Coast was shown to be one of the worst in the UK for complaints by passengers.

And the poorest performance came from its sister company, Virgin Cross Country, with just over two-thirds of trains running on time. VCC ran just

67.8pc of trains on time, from January to March.

Meanwhile, First North Western said passenger satisfaction had risen 11pc since the last survey, and at 83pc is above the UK average.